y'wanna know what it is?
pizza.
yup.
therapy, for me, involved tossing dough and tuning up all the toppings,
and baking the big picture on an oven stone in a 480℉ convection oven.
that's real.
wednesday night was a pizza party.
and one of the three pizzas i made was F*ing expert.
would you like to see it?
ok.
check the teleport:
that's AMORÉ!!
y'know? word up.
a square pizza is invited to my partied most of the time.
i also made a traditional circle, cut into traditional wedges, for the kids,
and a gluten-free ultra-bummer for breezy...those weren't breakout stars.
but that rectangular rock-and-roller up there^^?
super-duper-fly, duders.
it had crushed san marzano tomatoes on the bottom,
then torn baby spinach leaves,
followed by exxxtra-minced daiya mozzarella, exxxtra melty for the exxxtra effort
(rules is rules)
...and caramelized sweet onions.
then there's oven-roasted olive oil and pink salted red potato slices,
red onion,
fat brown (on purpose) tomatoes,
steamed broccoli,
and fried garlic sprankles.
THAT'S a monster pizza, and only a square crust could've adequately accommodated all that.
but that's not all-
nope.
too much is the right amount-
there's ALSO homemade tempeh bacon bits on top-
this batch was simple:
-
*
TEMPEH BACONZ
-
in a high-walled pan, on high heat, with 1 tsp olive oil, lay out
1/2 block tempeh, cut into long strips 1/4" thick,
add:
1/2 cup water;
1 tsp ea. Garlic Powder Onion Powder;
2 T gluten-free soy sauce;
3 shakes liquid smoke;
2 T agave;
1 tsp smoked paprika;
1 tsp black pepper.
simmer until all that liquid is absorbed, and flip 'em once to get all
the caramelized agave goodness to glaze both sides-
then remove 'em from the heat, and chop 'em up to toss onto your pizza.
tight.
-
ok, ok, OKAY- and i also also added shredded radicchio ribbons.
yeah.
i want the overkill to kill me over and over with every slice.
it did.
i died.
it was worth it.
and the dough was dope, as always:
-
*
DOUGHPE!
-
in your uprighteous stand mixer, with the essential dough hook in place,
knead together:
2 cups a.p. flour;
1 1/2 tsp salt;
1 pkg fast-actin' yeast;
1 tsp sugar;
3/4 cup warm water w/ 1 tsp bread-machine yeast stirred in and bloomed five minutes-
beat it up for ten minutes straight on low-low/medium speed,
and let it proof all day in the fridge, or even just while the oven warms up to temp...
that's the stuff, neighbors.
the longer you can let it rise, slowly, the more flavor will develop along with the texture.
that's real.
*
pizza is what i love best of all.
i'm grateful that every day is too damned busy.
that means my life is FULL, which means i'm not wasting time.
i literally fall asleep standing up most of these evenings,
and i kind of like it.
i dunno where yesterday ended, i just know that crabtree
gets suckier at sleeping every single night....
so we're up earlier and earlier every damned day.
and that's saying a LOT, as he was never known for being a slumberer.
-
i also went to the school's open house, too.
uh-huh.
that's real.
i owe my daughters' mom a hard high five,
because that is a monster-sized sardine-packed powermove for party-poopin'
poopie pants parents, and easily ten times as many little kids.....
yikes!
it's cool, we all did the thing, and we all met the staff and saw the sights,
and it was cute and they were cute, and it was alllllll cute.
i did a thing.
we did a thing.
it was a big deal, and no big deal,
and it signified all the ways in which the last few years have changed me.
it's all really happening,
all the tears, a little bit of sweat,
and thankfully the only blood shed so far mostly belongs to me
and just a drop or two a day comes that tiny type-one diabetic baby;
NQNS.....
No comments:
Post a Comment